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Project management often requires accelerating schedules to meet deadlines. Calculating crash costs and understanding when to implement fast tracking strategies are essential for effective project control. This article explains the key concepts and steps involved.
Understanding Project Crash Costs
Crash costs refer to the additional expenses incurred when reducing the project duration. These costs include overtime pay, additional resources, and potential increased overheads. Accurate calculation helps determine if crashing is financially viable.
Steps to Calculate Crash Costs
- Identify critical activities: Focus on tasks on the critical path that affect the project completion date.
- Determine crash durations: Find the shortest possible time to complete each activity with additional resources.
- Calculate crash costs: Assess the cost difference between normal and crashed durations for each activity.
- Prioritize activities: Select activities with the lowest crash cost per time unit to minimize overall expenses.
When to Apply Fast Tracking
Fast tracking involves overlapping project activities to shorten the schedule. It is suitable when project deadlines are tight, and crashing is too costly or impractical. Careful analysis ensures that risks associated with overlapping do not outweigh benefits.
Indicators for Fast Tracking
- Schedule pressure: Imminent deadlines require schedule compression.
- Crash costs too high: When crashing activities is financially unfeasible.
- Low risk of rework: Overlapping tasks with minimal dependencies.
- Availability of resources: Sufficient resources to handle concurrent activities.